Tag Archives: Jail

City Update from Councilperson Gee

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Redwood City Lunar New Year Celebration

On Saturday, February 5, from 11- 3 at our Courthouse Plaza, Redwood City will be hosting our inaugural Lunar Year Festival. I am pleased to have the Shaolin Culture Center, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble and the Red Panda Acrobats help us welcome the Year of the Rabbit. There will be food, crafts, activities for the kids and martial arts demonstrations.

Kristen Sze, morning news co-anchor and reporter for ABC7 News will be our emcee for the welcome and introductions at 11:00, followed immediately by a lion dance and martial arts demonstration by the Shaolin Culture Center.

I want to hank our presenting sponsor, AT&T for their help in making this event a possibility. I also want to thank many of our other business partners: Stanford University, Kaiser, Recology, First National Bank, San Mateo Credit Union, ABC7 News and Kristen Sze. I also want to thank our community partners; the City of Redwood City, the Civic Cultural Commission and Redwood City International.

I hope that you will be able to join us for our first Lunar New Year celebration. For additional information got to www.RedwoodCityEvents.com.

New Jail Site

At the end of 2010, San Mateo County closed escrow on the site for the new jail that the City assembled on Maple Street, east of Veterans, across the street from our Police Department. The City Council was united in that a new jail is not the type of urban, high density housing that we envisioned for downtown. Under the leadership of Mayor Ira, our City Manager, City Attorney and a team of real estate consultants, the City was able to assemble a site that met most of the requirements of the Sheriff’s office. Thank you to all that helped let the Sheriff’s Office and the Board of Supervisor’s know that a new jail in our downtown was not wanted.

Levees are Certifiable

On January 21, city staff received a letter from FEMA indicating that our levees are certifiable. “.It appears that the Redwood Shores Levee Systems Map meets the minimum certification requirements.” The four-page letter goes on and states that “[levee] system can do and change with time.” This means that the new flood maps will show Redwood Shores as protected from a base flood.

Please join me in thanking city staff and my council colleagues for providing the leadership and means to making this work happen. Working with new regulations from FEMA, the City of San Carlos, the County of San Mateo, and the Department of Fish & Game (just to name a few agencies involved) on a very strict deadline was not easy. By completing the work last year, each of us avoided the cost of flood insurance; a cost that ranged between $1,200 – $1,500 a year per residential property.

I look forward to seeing many of you at RSCA’s Annual Meeting on February 9, where I have the honor to talk about the “State of the Shores,” and answer any questions that you may have.

See you soon!

— Jeff Gee, Redwood City Councilperson

Editorial: An Alternative Site for a New Jail

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Last year, Sheriff Munks indicated that he needed a new jail to address over-crowding. With the courts and the Sheriff’s office in downtown Redwood City, the argument was made that the new jail needed to be downtown. The preferred site was the County Motorpool lot on Brewster.

After several years of community planning and civic investment in our downtown, the addition of a new jail to our downtown was not the type of urban housing any of us on the Council wants. Under the leadership of Mayor Ira, and with the full support of the Council, an alternative site has been identified — on Chemical Way, across the street from our police station.

Local government is more nimble and can move quickly. A lot of effort was spent in working with 4 separate property owners to purchase their properties for a fair price. Sales contracts were written, and the City executed the agreements with everyone’s knowledge and awareness that these contracts would be transferred to the County. Sheriff Munks and the Board of Supervisors have agreed that the Chemical Way site is a viable site for a new jail, and they have endorsed this site at their October 19 meeting.

This is just the beginning of the process to confirm an alternative site for a new jail. The sale of the properties cannot be finalized until the County completes the environmental review process. The downtown site will likely be analyzed as an alternative site during the EIR process, so we must continue to be vigilant. If a new jail is needed and is required to be in Redwood City, the Chemical Way site is the best site.

— Jeff Gee, Redwood City Councilperson